msgid ""
" The BBC invited me to write an article for their column series, The Tech "
"Lab, and this is what I sent them. (It refers to a couple of other articles "
"published in that series.) The BBC was ultimately unwilling to publish it "
"with a copying-permission notice, so I have published it here."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo proposed here that every object in our world have "
"a unique number so that your cell phone could record everything you "
"do—even which cans you picked up while in the supermarket."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"If the phone is like today's phones, it will use proprietary software: "
"software controlled by the companies that developed it, not by its users. "
"Those companies will ensure that your phone makes the information it "
"collects about you available to the phone company's database (let's call it "
"Big Brother) and probably to other companies."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"In the UK of the future, as New Labour would have it, those companies will "
"surely turn this information over to the police. If your phone reports you "
"bought a wooden stick and a piece of poster board, the phone company's "
"system will deduce that you may be planning a protest, and report you "
"automatically to the police so they can accuse you of "
"“terrorism”."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"In the UK, it is literally an offense to be suspect—more precisely, to "
"possess any object in circumstances that create a “reasonable "
"suspicion” that you might use it in certain criminal ways. Your phone "
"will give the police plenty of opportunities to suspect you so they can "
"charge you with having been suspected by them. Similar things will happen "
"in China, where Yahoo has already given the government all the information "
"it needed to imprison a dissident; it subsequently asked for our "
"understanding on the excuse that it was “just following orders.”"
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Horowitz would like cell phones to tag information automatically, based on "
"knowing when you participate in an event or meeting. That means the phone "
"company will also know precisely whom you meet. That information will also "
"be interesting to governments, such as those of the UK and China, that cut "
"corners on human rights."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"I do not much like Horowitz's vision of total surveillance. Rather, I "
"envision a world in which our computers never collect, or release, any "
"information about us except when we want them to."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Nonfree software does other nasty things besides spying; it often implements "
"digital handcuffs—features designed to restrict the users (also called "
"DRM, for Digital Restrictions Management). These features control how you "
"can access, copy, or move the files in your own computer."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"DRM is a common practice: Microsoft does it, Apple does it, Google does it, "
"even the BBC's iPlayer does it. Many governments, taking the side of these "
"companies against the public, have made it illegal to tell others how to "
"escape from the digital handcuffs. As a result, competition does nothing to "
"check the practice: no matter how many proprietary alternatives you might "
"have to choose from, they will all handcuff you just the same. If the "
"computer knows where you are located, it can make DRM even worse: there are "
"companies that would like to restrict what you can access based on your "
"present location."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"My vision of the world is different. I would like to see a world in which "
"all the software in our computers — in our desktop PCs, our laptops, "
"our handhelds, our phones — is under our control and respects our "
"freedom. In other words, a world where all software is free software."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Free software, freedom-respecting software, means that every user of the "
"program is free to get the program's source code and change the program to "
"do what she wants, and also free to give away or sell copies, either exact "
"or modified. This means the users are in control. With the users in "
"control of the software, nobody has power to impose nasty features on "
"others."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Even if you don't exercise this control yourself, you are part of a society "
"where others do. If you are not a programmer, other users of the program "
"are. They will probably find and remove any nasty features, which might spy "
"on or restrict you, and publish safe versions. You will have only to select "
"to use them—and since all other users will prefer them, that will "
"usually happen with no effort on your part."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Charles Stross envisioned computers that permanently record everything that "
"we see and hear. Those records could be very useful, as long as Big Brother "
"doesn't see and hear all of them. Today's cell phones are already capable "
"of listening to their users without informing them, at the request of the "
"police, the phone company, or anyone that knows the requisite commands. As "
"long as phones use nonfree software, controlled by its developers and not by "
"the users, we must expect this to get worse. Only free software enables "
"computer-using citizens to resist totalitarian surveillance."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Dave Winer's article suggested that Mr. Gates should send a copy of Windows "
"Vista to Alpha Centauri. I understand the feeling, but sending just one "
"won't solve our problem here on Earth. Windows is designed to spy on users "
"and restrict them. We should collect all the copies of Windows, and of "
"MacOS and iPlayer for the same reason, and send them to Alpha Centauri at "
"the slowest possible speed. Or just erase them."
msgstr ""
#. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't have notes.
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <gnu@gnu.org>. There are also other ways to contact the FSF. Broken links and "
"other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <webmasters@gnu.org>."
msgstr ""
#. TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
#. replace it with the translation of these two:
#
#. We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
#. translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
#. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
#. to
#
#. <web-translators@gnu.org>.